ILLUSTRATOR & GAME ARTIST | SWITZERLAND

Helvetii DevBlog #5: Spring stroll

Hello friends !

Oh gosh, it’s been a month ! My apologies for having basically missed an entry, things have been quite busy here for reasons also unrelated to the game, but things are nicely underway ! I have gone back to the drawing board for a few visual things related to future levels and am currently assigning the specifics to each “room” of the first level in the game.

Also Zelda and Nier: Automata…yeah there was that. (Also, go play Nier: Automata, it’s really good !)

In any case, I did not want to leave you guys with nothing at all for an even longer period of time ! Shame on me ! So I decided to do a little something special and shoot a few vids during my latest reference expedition as I was trying to find some new fresh ideas for my visual designs. Furthermore, near my home are a few remaining roman ruins. A paltry reminder of the region’s past, if we compare to the more significant ruins in other regions of ancient Gaul. Still, since I haven’t been there in years, my memory needed a little exercise.

Bridging the gap

I do these “reconaissance” excursions quite often. Not only as pure research, mind you, but to help myself fight against a particular issue regarding this game.

Looking at these locationsis a good exercise to somehow imagine not only how it was back then, but how I can fill the rest with imagination. How much fantasy I can insert is up to debate as I don’t want it to become a complete fabrication.

Recently, I’ve been having trouble for the visual design of the second level, which does take place near the Geneva lake (or the Leman, as we call it). What type of housing. What type of mood,. What kind of people would live there.

While there is still research to be done, just walking here and there is a good enough exercise to simply”soak-in” the palce internally.

Helvetii is not a historically accurate game. It borrows a lot from the people the places and the myths as well, but still mixes it up to write its own fiction. I hope I can balance both in the end !